


Guard Duty

by GirlwithCurls98



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Ahsoka Tano Needs a Hug, Anakin Skywalker Needs a Hug, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Injury Recovery, Master & Padawan Relationship(s), Memory Loss, Protective Ahsoka Tano, Protective Anakin Skywalker, Protective Obi-Wan Kenobi, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2020-12-14
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:53:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28060458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GirlwithCurls98/pseuds/GirlwithCurls98
Summary: Kix and the other medics have a counter up in the Medbay. "Days Since Anakin Skywalker Has Been Unconscious" That tally rarely gets above a seven. A short character study about our favorite trio and their protective nature.
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker
Comments: 13
Kudos: 219





	Guard Duty

_ Everything was burning. He was suffocating in a heat that wrapped around his throat, he would have choked on it had he been able to draw breath at all. The heat consumed him until he was almost numb to it. Almost.  _

__ _ The heat was torturous, but the worst was that he could not close his eyes, even though he was surrounded by darkness. They were stinging, watering with tears that turned to steam as they streaked down his scorched cheeks. He begged and pleaded with silent screams but still he could not shut his eyes. Could not escape into death or sleep or the heartless eyes of some unseen god. In that moment, he would have gladly traded all his remaining limbs for the bitter cold of a polar planet and the chance to close his eyes. He was so tired. Tired of pain and tired of heat. But no matter how hard he tried to reach into the Force, seeking a moment of relief, something still blocked him from the peace he so desperately needed.  _

__ _ After an unbearable amount of time, a thread of fire wrapped around his midsection, drawing him up slowly. He struggled like a hooked fish but ultimately he had no strength left to fight or even cry out for help. At long last, whatever it was that had pulled him from the fire allowed his eyes to drift closed. His eyes closed and then Anakin Skywalker woke up.  _

* * *

“Ughhhhh.” He groaned, coming back to himself, head spinning at the overwhelming rush of sensation.  _ Remember your training. Start inward and work outward. _

He took stock of his body, though the whole of it felt like dead weight. Dead weight that had been run over by an armored tank a few times. He could hear his breath, wheezing but steady and his head was still attached to his shoulders, propped up on something soft.  _ Still alive then.  _

But that was the only positive. He felt truly awful, queasy and struggling to open his eyes. When he finally managed that, his vision blurred against harsh white lights. A faint beeping reached his ears, along with the tell-tale whirr and thump of a cleaning bot running into a wall. 

_ Medcenter. Figures.  _

__ He tried to shift, to shake off some of the numbness only to have a lance of pain shoot through his midsection. 

“Ughhhhhhhh”

“Good morning to you too.” 

Anakin forced his eyes to one side as his vision slowly cleared and Obi-Wan Kenobi came into focus. The elder Jedi was sitting beside his bed, attention suddenly pulled away from the datapad he’d been studying while his former student slept. At seeing each other, alive and awake, relief flooded both sides of their link. 

“Master.” He rasped. 

Obi-Wan smiled warmly, but years of being partners meant that Anakin could see the concern buried deep in the man’s eyes. Obi-Wan picked a waiting glass of water off the bedside table and placed it against the Knight’s parched lips. A light flush colored his cheeks but otherwise, Anakin did not protest. 

As long as he’d known Obi-Wan, his Master had always been with him when he woke up in the medcenter, hindered only by distance. On Anakin’s first solo mission, he’d almost gotten himself killed and ended up in the medcenter for over a week. But despite his insistence that he’d “finally been Knighted and didn’t need a Master fussing over him”, Obi-Wan had still been there when he woke up and silenced any resistance in his tracks with a simple- “Once my padawan, always my padawan.”

After Anakin had quenched his thirst, Obi-Wan sat back in his chair and waited for his student’s memory to catch up with him. But the tangle of events and chaos and pain refused to straighten themselves out; their bond felt muddied and dull, like a tarnish settled over bright metal. Finally, Anakin gave up trying to put the twisted pieces of the mission back together on his own. 

“What happened?” He asked, cringing at how slurred his voice sounded, even to his ears. 

_ What meds did they give me this time? _

__ He hated the drugs that made him feel numb all over; they made his bonds fuzzy, as if they turned off the gravity in his mind to let everything float around freely. He much preferred the clarity of pain, no matter how sharp. 

“You were rescuing the civilian prisoners from the concealed mining shaft.” Obi-Wan began simply. “Artoo’s scanners discovered a bomb that had been embedded near the entrance in order to prevent such a mass escape. You were able to excavate the bomb after it had been triggered and you tried to deactivate it completely as it counted down.” 

“Tried!?!” Gruesome images of his padawan, his troops, all those kids they’d pulled out of that hellhole flashed before his eyes as he screwed them shut. The burning was back, turning to liquid panic in his veins. 

_ What had he done? Had he let them all die? He wasn’t strong enough, of course he wasn’t strong enough, how was he supposed to… _

__ Obi-Wan reached forward and smoothed Anakin’s bangs back from his face, gentle fingers combing through his tangled hair. 

“Shh… it’s okay Ani. No one was killed. You got everyone out safe. You kept the bomb from exploding until everyone was out. It’s okay.”

Anakin gasped for air, blindly reaching for his Master’s tunic sleeve like he had as a child. He clung desperately to the reassuring words, too afraid to let himself believe it. The Force reached back, sending a wave of comfort to its son. 

__ _ Be at peace. _ It said.  _ All is well, and you are safe. _

After a minute, it seemed like the young Knight was beginning to calm. But no sooner had Obi-Wan sat back that another white-hot pain struck him. His eyes flew open and pure panic met his Master’s gaze. 

“Ahsoka! Where’s Ahsoka?! Is she okay??” 

“Anakin, Anakin, she’s safe. Breathe for me.” 

Obi-Wan reached out along their bond and pushed wave after wave of peace towards Anakin’s mind, but it wasn’t enough, especially not to sway a protective teacher worried about his student. 

_ Or an older brother worried about his baby sister.  _

__ The injured Knight tried to push himself up; Obi-Wan sensed the flash of pain and marveled, not for the first time, at the young man’s strength of will when he was driven by concern for others. 

“No, no, I need to see her. I need to see that she’s okay. Obi-Wan, help me, please let me see her.” 

He was quickly becoming frantic, struggling as Obi-Wan grabbed his shoulders and pressed him back into the bed. 

“Padawan.” 

The former title got his attention. Anakin froze, and in that moment he was nine year old again, desperately trying to make Obi-Wan understand t hat he wasn’t disobeying out of pure stubbornness. And Obi-Wan, ever gracious, simply smiled and slowed his breathing. It didn’t take long before Anakin subconsciously joined him and the raging storm finally settled. 

“Ahsoka is safe.” Obi-Wan repeated. “Do you remember what happened with Captain Rex?” 

Anakin shook his head.  _ Had Rex been hurt? How many of the 501st had been injured? Did he even know their names?  _

__ “You told Ahsoka to leave with the civilians but she refused. She didn’t want to leave you. Rex didn’t want to leave either, but you ordered him to take Ahsoka out, so he did. Kicking and screaming, I might add.” 

Anakin sighed heavily. He’d known that she wouldn’t leave on her own. It was a fight they’d had before and a fight they’d have again. One of these days, she would understand that if it came down to it, he’d give his life for hers- every time. 

“If you see Rex, tell him I owe him a drink as soon as I get out of here.”

Obi-Wan squeezed Anakin’s hand once, twice. “I’m proud of you for getting everyone to safety. Just try to stay out of the Medbay next time, for my sake?”

He couldn’t help but laugh at that. “I’ll try. Stress isn’t good for your old heart, Master.” 

Obi-Wan rolled his eyes and stood, tucking the blanket back around his padawan. “If you want to get out of here, you need to rest. I’ll spare you the torture of reporting to the Council, considering you can hardly remember what happened. Sleep, and I’ll be back after while.” 

“Could you send Ahsoka down when you see her?” 

A fond smile graced Obi-Wan’s face. “No need.” 

He pointed, and Anakin’s hazy mind followed. With great effort, he turned his head for the first time since waking up and saw… his padawan?! 

Ahsoka was curled up in a chair, fast asleep but hardly resting. her knees were pulled into her chest like a lothcat cub, the knuckles on both hands nearly white as her hands clutched around two lightsabers-- her own, held in her right, in her customary reverse grip. And in her left- Anakin’s, just a bit too big for her grasp. 

She was bruised and scraped up, which was normal after these missions. There was a stiff white bandage wrapped around her right lek, which was definitely  _ not _ . 

“Oh.”

“She hasn’t left.” Obi-Wan explained, walking around the bed to lay his cloak over the young girl, guarding against the medcenter’s chill. “I told her to go shower and sleep, but she simply refused to move. I convinced her to eat a bit and Kix patched her up, but she hasn’t left your side since we dug you out of the rubble. She was so exhausted, I eventually had to use a sleep compulsion.”

Anakin sobered, the fog from the drugs lifting as he scanned over his student. Even through the haze he would’ve felt her worry, the rock of guilt and concern in her stomach that kept her from falling into a truly restoring sleep. By the time he looked up again, Obi-Wan had taken his leave. 

Despite his own injuries and his quickly fading energy, the Knight reached out and laid a gentle hand on the top of Ahsoka’s head. 

_ /Sleep, little one. Thank you for keeping watch, but it’s time to rest now. I’m okay, Snips, I’ll be here when you wake up./  _

__ She was too far down to respond with words, but Anakin instantly felt their bond relax and fill with a sense of calm and contentment as Ahsoka registered her Master’s presence- alive and well, if a little worse for wear. 

Anakin kept his hand where it was, maintaining the link even as he sunk back into sleep, the pulse of warmth along their bond wrapping around them like a well-worn blanket. The Force condensed into a protective shell, more than happy to stand guard over its children as they finally found rest. 

_ You’ve more than earned it.  _

**Author's Note:**

> Super fluffy and simple, but I may expand this to include the others waking up after one disaster or another. Let me know what you think, comments and critiques make me a better writer and would be the best Christmas present ever. May the Force be with you!


End file.
